as soon as it was parcelled out among their families, each of them built a distinct cot in the centre of his own ground. -These were but slight, temporary huts, as they generally removed to a fresh position every year.

See Univer. Hist. vol. xvii, p. 775, note (H).

even in the deserts which the Israelites traversed, there were tracts not entirely unfruitful, and unsusceptible of still farther improvement; as, for instance, the wilderness of Paran, as it was called, &c. &c. MICHAELIS' Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. i. p. 149.

2569. [Num. xxxi. 22.] Perah produces more tin than any country in India; but the inhabitants are so evil-disposed, that no European nation can keep factories there with safety.

Malacca produces nothing for a foreign market, but a little tin and elephants' teeth.

The territories of Johore abound in tin, pepper, elephants' teeth, gold, Agala-wood and capes.

Pabaung produces tin. Sangore yields some tin. Ligore produces abundance of tin. Cui produces great quantities of tin and elephants' teeth.

Captain HAMILTON Pinkerton's Coll. part xxxiii. pp. 433, 435, 440, 462, 464.

2570. [— 28, &c.] As the Midianites had their own religious governments to support, the LORD, instead of exacting full tythe, graciously compounds with them by taking to Himself as King only one out of every 500, and by ordering one in 50 to be taken by the priesthood for the support of the poor, the fatherless, the widows, &c. throughout their gates.

Deut. xx. II.

2574. [Num. xxxii. 17.] By referring to Num. xxvi. 7, 18, 34, we may gather that 70,580 slaves, denominated cattle," were left, when these tribes passed the Jordan, to protect the women and the children. In this sense LUCAN intimates (lib. iv), that the Gætulians were mixed with their cattle in their mapalia. See Univer. Hist. vol. xvii. p. 438, note (D).

2575. [29, 30.] This position of the tribes of Israel is similar to the arrangement spontaneously assumed by a flock of sheep on the mountains, whep alarmed by the approach of a powerful enemy. On such occasions they draw up into a complete body, placing the females and young in the centre, whilst the males take the foremost ranks, keeping close by each other. Thus an armed front is presented on all quarters, that cannot easily be attacked without danger of destruction to the assailant. In this manner they wait with firmness the approach of the enemy; nor does their courage fail them in the moment of attack; for, when the aggressor advances within a few yards of the line, the Rams dart upon him with such impetuosity as to lay him dead at their feet, unless he judiciously save himself by timely flight. Against the attacks of single Dogs or Foxes, when in this situation, they are perfectly secure.

and that prejudices and manners may be softened. The Hebrews were commanded to marry in their own tribe; but it was perhaps a mean of encouraging them all to population. Twelve tribes among the Jews were more certain of agreeing, than the two classes of plebeians and patricians among the Romans. Between these two factions nothing could bring back the equilibrium; among twelve classes it maintained itself: all with emulation counterbalanced each other, and each was of sufficient weight to prevent the predominance of any one. PINKERTON'S Coll. part ii. p. 372.

2582. [Num. xxxvi. 8.] The assertion that no Israelite durst marry out of his tribe, and which we find repeated in a hundred books, is a silly fiction, directly confuted by the Mosaic writings. Even the high priest himself was not obliged to confine himself to his own tribe; nothing more being enjoined him, than to look out for an Israelitish bride. It was only in this single case of a daughter being the heiress of her father's land, that she was prohibited from marrying out of her tribe, in order that the inheritance might not pass to another tribe. Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. ii. p. 36.

2583. [11, 12.] An Heiress was obliged, by the laws of Greece, to marry her nearest relation, that the estate might not go out of the family; and this relation, in case of her refusal, had a right to sue for the delivery of her person, as we do for goods and chattels.

Dr. W. ALEXANDER's Hist. of Women, vol. i. p. 135.

T

HIS speech, says JOSEPHUS, was delivered near Jordan, where the city Abila now stands; a place full of palm

trees.

Antiq. b. iv. ch. viii. § 1.

2585. [Deut. i. 8.] From time immemorial, Palestine had been a land occupied by wandering Hebrew herdsmen, in which even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had exercised the right of proprietorship, traversing it with herds, without being in subjection to any one, or acknowledging the Canaanites as their masters. The Phoenicians, or Canaanites, were certainly not the original possessors of this land, but had at first dwelt on the Red Sea, as Herodotus relates; with whom Justin and Abulfeda so far coincide, as that the former says, that they had another country before they came to dwell on the Lake of Gennezareth, or Dead Sea; and the latter, that they first dwelt in Arabia. (See Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. i. pp. 154 — 169. — See also Num. xx. 19.) – Phoenicians is the Greek name of the people who in Hebrew are called Canaanites.

BOCHART.

2586. [- — 15.] In the kingdom of Peru, the state was separated into decuries, or divisions of ten families in each, which were committed to the guidance of an officer. Over five of these decuries, or fifty families, an officer of superior rank presided, and these ascended in pre-eminence and gradation, to the command of a hundred, five hundred, and a thousand families. It was the duty of each of the subordinate superintendants of police, to report to his immediate superior, all actions whether good or bad, which had occurred within the limits of his observation; - for the former he solicited rewards, for the latter, punishments. He likewise rendered an account of the state of provisions and other necessaries. The several reports were laid before the

Inca by the superior officer of each district, whose jurisdic-
tion extended over a thousand families.
See No. 2025.
HERIOTT'S Canada, p. 565.

2587. [Deut. i. 13, 15,] The territory of England is divided into counties, hundreds, tithings, or towns. Which division as it now stands seems to owe its original to king Alfred; who to prevent the rapines and disorders which formerly prevailed in the realm, instituted tithings, so called, because ten freeholders with their families, made one. These all dwelt together, and were sureties to the king for the good behaviour of each other.

A hundred was originally made up of ten tithings, consisting of ten times ten families, and is governed by the high

constable.

A County or shire, is a district made up of an indefinite number of hundreds. See No. 774.

See a Concise View of the Constitution of England, by GEO. CUSTANCE, p. 50.

2583. [Deut. ii. 9.] Ar, called also Rabbah, and 'by the Greeks Arcopolis, was the chief city of Moab, situate on the river Arnon. The other cities given to the descendants of Lot, were Mizpeh, Lutheth, Horonaim, and some others, whose situations are not certainly known.

Univer. Hist. vol. ii. p. 81.

2589. [Deut. iii. 11.] The inhabitants of Little Bukhâria have a sort of bedstead half a yard high, and four yards long, which is hidden in the day with a carpet.

Modern Univer. Hist. vol. v.p. 135.

Verse 38.] Here it is positively asserted that the nations, where the two tribes and a half were now settled, had not been killed, but banished.

2597. [Deut. iv. 34.] Wars, though of a civil nature, represent in heaven states of the Church, and are correspondent to its spiritual conflicts. Such were all the wars described in the Word; and such are all wars at this day. But in this world it is not known, which are the kingdoms in Christendom, that represent the Moabites and Ammonites, which the Syrians and Philistines, and which the Chaldæans and Assyrians, and the rest with whom the Israelites waged war; nevertheless there are kingdoms in Christendom which represent those peoples. SWEDENBORG, on Divine Providence, n. 251.

2601. [- 22.] Sir ISAAC NEWTON has proved, that the gravitation of bodies on the surface of the sun, is 27 times stronger than it is with us. Hence the compression of the elastic gases of which the solar atmosphere consists, if similar to our own (in its dark under stratum), must be greater than that of ours, in proportion to the superior force by which they are compressed, namely, their own powerful gravitation towards the sun. See No. 796.

Phil. Trans. 1801, part ii. p. 300.

2602. [Deut. vi. 8.] Not that phylacteries should be made of the law, to be worn; as the Pharisees interpreted the injunction, and others through them have mistaken: but that they should have the law in continual remembrance, as it were always in their sight, and continually fixed in their bands.

2603.

Origines Sacra, p. 102.

For general information, therefore, the Mosaic laws were to be written in all public places, on the posts of houses, and on the city gates; Deut. vi. 6—9.In like manner, in Syria, and the adjacent countries, it is usual at this day to place inscriptions above the doors of the houses, which, as quoted in the books of travels, appear well calculated to impress the laws on the minds of posterity in their earliest years. Among us indeed, where, by the aid of printing, books are so abundantly multiplied, and may be put into the hands of every child, such measures would be quite superfluous; but if we would enter into the spirit of this Mosaic institute, we must place ourselves in an age, when the book of the Law could only come into the hands of a few opulent people.

Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. p. 311.

2607. [Deut. vii. 2.] The Hebrew word rendered smite, denotes here, and in general, to rout. See Dr. GEDDES, on Judg. xv. 15.

2608. [— 3.] Most of the Grecian states required their citizens to match with none but citizens; considering the freedom of their cities as too great a privilege to be granted on easier terms to foreigners, or their children: hence we find the Athenian laws sentencing the children of such matches to perpetual slavery. They also had a law, that if a foreigner married a free-woman of Athens, it should be lawful for any person to call him to account before the magistrates called Thesmotheta; where, if he were convicted, they sold him for a slave, all his goods were confiscated, and the third part thereof given to the accuser. MOORE's Marriage Customs, p. 72.

2609. [5.] As no mention is here made of temples to be destroyed, Sir ISAAC NEWTON Concludes that the Canaanites had none in those days. See No. 176. See his Chronol. of Ant. Kingd. Amended, p. 221.

2610.[22.] The beasts of the field, here, as in many other places of Sacred Scripture, deuote not animals, but savage tribes of untutored human beings. See Gen. i. 28. Jonah iii. 8.

2611. [Deut. viii. 4.] Here are abundance of mysteries, occasioned by a writer's not saying in direct terms, that nothing was wanting to the Israelites in the wilderness; which defect Nehemiah, magnifying God's providence on this very subject, literally supplies, saying, Forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not. Neh. ix. 21.

Bib. Research. vol. ii. p. 403.

2612. [——————7—9.] It is said, that the fertile soil of Armagh in Ireland turns barren under the addition of artificial compost. See Camb. Brit. in comitat. Armach.

1

2613. [8.] HASSELQUIST says, the olives of Judea are incomparably the best he had tasted in the Levant. He praises also the fig-trees he met with in the neighbourhood of Joppa; and tells us that the Asiatics use their excellent